MAŠA STANIC
CALL IT "DUBAI"
11.09.–22.11.2026
As part of a series of contemporary young positions presented in the upper gallery alongside the WORLD PRESS PHOTO 2026 exhibition, WestLicht is showing, for the first time, a selection from the long-term series by Serbian-Austrian photographer Maša Stanić, born in 1994.
What began in 2018 with a brief visit to a Roma settlement on the outskirts of Belgrade developed over the course of eight years into a close friendship between Stanić and the people she met there. An acquaintance first took her to the Vuka Vrčevića neighbourhood. What began as an initial encounter grew into regular visits, and the visits into a photographic project that follows less a fixed concept than a relationship of closeness, trust, and mutual familiarity that has developed over many years.
The title of the exhibition, CALL IT “DUBAI”, refers to the ambivalent reality of the place. Several thousand kilometres from Dubai, the settlement lies on the outskirts of Belgrade, where mountains of sand belonging to a cement company rise directly beside the houses, forming an artificial desert landscape. “We’re already living in Dubai anyway,” Demuš, one of the residents, once remarked jokingly when asked whether he would prefer to live somewhere else.
Vuka Vrčevića is one of numerous informal Roma settlements in the greater Belgrade area — a place outside the city’s regular structures, shaped by poverty and social marginalisation, but also by its own rules, relationships, and forms of communal life. To outsiders, the settlement remains largely inaccessible. Stanić’s photographs, however, focus less on the social conditions than on the people themselves — on their individual personalities, desires, relationships, and stories, which they often recount with remarkable humour.
MAŠA STANIC
CALL IT "DUBAI"
11.09.–22.11.2026
As part of a series of contemporary young positions presented in the upper gallery alongside the WORLD PRESS PHOTO exhibition, WestLicht is showing, for the first time, a selection from the long-term series by Serbian-Austrian photographer Maša Stanić, born in 1994.
What began in 2018 with a brief visit to a Roma settlement on the outskirts of Belgrade developed over the course of eight years into a close friendship between Stanić and the people she met there. An acquaintance first took her to the Vuka Vrčevića neighbourhood. What began as an initial encounter grew into regular visits, and the visits into a photographic project that follows less a fixed concept than a relationship of closeness, trust, and mutual familiarity that has developed over many years.
The title of the exhibition, CALL IT “DUBAI”, refers to the ambivalent reality of the place. Several thousand kilometres from Dubai, the settlement lies on the outskirts of Belgrade, where mountains of sand belonging to a cement company rise directly beside the houses, forming an artificial desert landscape. “We’re already living in Dubai anyway,” Demuš, one of the residents, once remarked jokingly when asked whether he would prefer to live somewhere else.
Vuka Vrčevića is one of numerous informal Roma settlements in the greater Belgrade area — a place outside the city’s regular structures, shaped by poverty and social marginalisation, but also by its own rules, relationships, and forms of communal life. To outsiders, the settlement remains largely inaccessible. Stanić’s photographs, however, focus less on the social conditions than on the people themselves — on their individual personalities, desires, relationships, and stories, which they often recount with remarkable humour.
Aus der Serie CALL IT "DUBAI",
© Maša Stanić
MAŠA STANIĆ
CALL IT "DUBAI"
11.09.–22.11.2026
Öffnungszeiten:
täglich (außer DO) | 11–19 Uhr
DO | 11–21 Uhr
MAŠA STANIĆ
CALL IT "DUBAI"
11.09.–22.11.2026
Öffnungszeiten:
täglich (außer DO) | 11–19 Uhr
DO | 11–21 Uhr